Process of removing impurities from fibrous material.



' l vme/awo J. W. CONNOLLY.

PROCESS OF REMOVING IMPURITIES FROM FIBROUS MATERIAL.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.20,1911.

1,1 19,069. v Patented Dec.1,1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Ja/m W Connolly.

egg/MW I a THE NORRIS PETERS 00.. PHOTO-L'ITHQ. WAS HINCi'ON. 0,

J. W. GONNOLLY.

5 PROCESS OF REMOVING IMPURITIES FROM PIBROUS MATERIAL.

APPLIOATION FILED NQV. 20, 1911.

' 1,1 19,069. I I Patented Dec. 1,1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEIET 2.

f l gnaw/Mow F Jb/rn W Conn'oll {041M mm I Emma "HE-I NORRIS PETERS cO..FHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON. D. C

, .isheld by, or between, two, feed rolls, oneor JOHN w;VGO,1\TNOLLY,.OF NEW BE'DFO'RD, MASSACHUSETTS."

To all whom it may concern f Be itfknown that I, JOHN s a citizen oftheUnited States, residing at New Bedford,,in theicolun'ty of Bristol andState of Massachusetts,have invented certain: new, and usefulImprovements. in Processes for Removing Impurities from FibrousMaterial, of "which the following is la a specification,

' This invention relates to a process. for re-.

moving impurities such ia s sand, leaves, seeds, dirt, naps or knits,burs, short or undesirable fibers, and foreign matter of any kind fromcotton, wool, worsted, silk, flax,

linen, jute, hemp, and otherfibrous mate-f rials, saidprocessalsoincluding the lay ng of the fibers. parallel iwitheaclnother, and the glossing or polishing of certain fibrous materialswhich are susceptible of a gloss "or polish. a q ,1 if In carrying outtheprocess a sheet of fibers bothbeing either smoothfor fiuted,.and madeof metal or any othersuitable material, or

one or both of the rolls being wou-nd or covered with leather or someother des rable material; or said sheet of fibers'may be held betweenone roll, asherein described, and a round orfiatrod, or surfacejorfedgeof a knife, plate, bar, or board. .Theisheet of fibers mayalsobeheldbetween nippers or jaws which open to allowthesheet to be fed orpropelled through said nippers or'jaws for the distance desired, afterwhichthe nippers or jaws may close to again hold the sheet.

A current of air or steam is drawn or forced through a slot, into astationary or revolving hollow roll, tube, pipe, cylindrical or othershaped casing The slot is held 1n close proximity to the fibers, and tothe bite l ing the sheetoffibers, are broughtcloser to,

of the nippers, whereby the impurities, etc., are drawn or forced fromthe sheet into the slot, and carried away to be "cared forby suitablereceiving machinery; The ends of the fibers which lead or projectfromthenippers first will hereinafter, for'convenience,

be termed the heads of the fibers; whereas the opposite ends, or thosewhich leavethenippers last, will be termed'ithetai'ls; of the er -becomecloser to, a setiofreceiving rolls,

This set of receiving rolls rotates at asuf- Specification of LettersPatent. F

W. OoNNoLLY,

machine.

PROCESSfOF REMOVING IMPURITIES FROM FIBROIIS MATERIAL;

I Patented Dec. '1, 1914.

h licat on'aiea November 20, 1911. Serial No. 661,195.

fieient rate of speed to'take'afirm hold on the heads of the fibers,s'othat now the sheet of fibers is held by both the feeding and receivingsets of rolls. If it is not desired to break the fibjers',therebyreducing the length of the individualfibers, the distance fromthe bite offthe feed rolls to the receiving rolls should be greater thanthe lengthof the fibers being treated. In thiscase the sheet of fibersis held together by the cohesion of the individual fibers, and thefibers are not broken by the next operation. In the next operation thefeed rolls and nippers are moved away from the receiving rolls;

orbo't h sets of rolls are revolved in a reverse direction to, but in alesser "degree than the fi w d motion, sons to disconnect, or partlallydisconnect those fibers which are held by the' receiving rolls, from thefibers which,

are being held byvthe feed rolls. The tails ready treated, and whicharenow held by of, those fibers whose heads have been a1 the samehollow-roll or pipe alreadyfdescribed, by which the heads of the fiberswere treated; or by a current of air or steam being drawn or forcedthrough a slotin another or second hollow roll or pipe which may besimilar to the one already described. The

tails of the fibers are treated by the slot being held in closeproximity thereto, and to the bite of the receiving rolls. While thetails of the fibers are being treated, or a period of time before orafter such treatment, the heads of the fibers of the remaining portionof thesheet, which are now held by the feed rolls, may be treated, thuscompleting the cycle of operation, or technically, one nip. Theoperation is continuous, every subsequent cycle or nip being the same asthe first,eXcept that after the heads and tails of the first sectionhave been treated, the heads of the next section are caused, or maybecaused, as desired, (governed by the order and relative time of thevarious'motions) to overlap the tails of the preceding section a greateror less distance, thus making a con tinuous sheet of fibersv deliveredfrom the accompanying drawings, in which Figures} t 9 arediagrammatic-views v illustrating the several steps of the process, andthe mechanism for carrying out the same. It is to'be understood,however, that I do not desire to be limited to the particular apparatusshown.

V In the dra wings,A denotes the upper jaw of the nippers; B, the lowerjaw; G, a feed roll; D, a feed plate; E, a screw for adjusting the feedplate; F, an air tube with slot f; and H, the receiving rolls. A sideelevation of these parts is shown, and it will be understood that'theymay be of any desired length according to the width of the sheets offibers to be treated. The machine itself may be run as a unit; oranumber of units-may be connected to run together.

I Fig. 1 shows the position of' the parts at the commencement of theoperation, and F ig. 2 shows their relative position when the heads ofthe fibers are being treated. The feed roll C has f ed the sheet forwardor rotated sufliciently so that the fibers are projecting beyond theclosed jaws A and B of the nippers, a certain distance, say, forinstance, three-eighths of an inch. The slot ffor the entrance of air.or steam is directly under the bite of the nipper jaws.

By a suitable valve mechanism (not shown) air or steam is allowed topass through the slot 7" into the tube F at the desired velocity.

In so doing the air will draw or force the projecting ends or heads ofthe fibers into the slot f, but cannot carry them away, as they are heldfirmly by and between the nipper jaws. However, impurities or foreignmatter,'contained in and among the projecting portion of the'fibers willbe carried away into the tube F. The valves are now auto- 'matioallyclosed so'as to stop, for a time, the passage of air or steam into theslot, and the nip'per jaws will open, and together with the feed roll 0and feed plate D will be moved closer to thereceiving rolls H, as

shown in Fig. '3.

Fig. 3 shows the position of the parts when the heads of the fiberswhich have been treated are being taken holdof by the receiving rolls H.The jaws of the nippers have opened and been brought very close to thebite of the receiving rolls, thus extending the sheet of fibers towardand into the bite of the receiving rolls, which latter rotate a certainsurface distance of say, fivesixteenths of an inch. At or about the sametime, the feed roll C rotates a certain surface distance of, say,three-eighths of an inch, and there is now a connected sheet of not theindividual fibers are broken in thenext operation, which is, that thenippers, together with the feed roll and plate, will be backed away fromthe rolls H as shown in Fig. 4, whereupon the sheet of fibers isseparated between the feed rolls and the re- 3 ceiving rolls. Thenippersandthe feed roll,

' and plate have been moved away from the receiving rolls H, thereby.detaching the of the other section are protruding nomthe nipper jaws Aand B, which latterare still open. The nipper jaws are nowlmade toclose, thereby holding the untreated portion of the fibers" secured,thesevered section being held by the rolls H. "The air tube F" is nowmoved toward and inclose proximity to the bite of the rolls H, as shownin Fig. 5, and the tails of the fibers protruding from said'rolls aretreated, the valves opening tocause or allow air or steam to passthrough the slot f so as to draw or force the tails of the fibers intothe slot and thereby remove thefinipurities," WltllOllt, however,'carryingi'the fibers away," as they areheld by the rolls. The valvesare now made to close-and the tube 'F is moved away from therollsuntilit is in its first position under theclosed nipper jaws as shown inFig.- 6. The valves are now again opened to -admit air to the slot 7'and the heads of the fibers held by the nippersare cleaned as be--together with the feed roll C and plate D are moved closer to the rollsH, as shown in Fig.7.:

Fig. 7 shows the position of the parts when the heads of the fiberswhich have just been treated are taken hold of by the rolls, H, saidparts taking the'same position as in Fig. 3, except that there were thenno fibers held by the rolls H, whereas now, and in each subsequentposition similar to Fig. 7

there are fibers held bv the rolls H, 'so that the heads of the fiberswhich protrude from the opennipper jaws lie over or under, or intertwinewith the tails of the fibers which are held by the rolls-H.' At thistime the rolls H again rotate, and at" or about the same time, the feedroll G rotates as previously explained, so thatthe fibers are deliveredfrom the rolls H in a connected sheet. The nippers, together with thefeed roll and plateare now made to recede from therolls H, as shown inFig. 8.

Fig. 8 shows the position of the parts I when another section of fibershas been dis connected or severed from the sheet, this position beingthe same as shown in Fig. i, which completes the cycle of operations,every subsequent cycle or nip being similar to the one herein described.9 The various moving parts will be automatically driven j and controlledby suitable mechanical means. If a fine comb is used, it will be" 10-.

cated between the feedand the receiving rolls so as to Straighten outthe fibers that] are beingdrawn into the latter, and to retardtheprogress or passage of the impuritiesand 'foreignmatter, therebyincreasing the efliciency of the air slot 7. If air or steam is tobeforced into the slot f, the nip- In the foregoing description itisstated that the heads and tails of the fibers are subjected to thecleansing blast, but it will be noted that .theintermediate portions ofthe fibers are also treated. When the tails I are held bythe nippers,not only are the heads treated butalso the intermediate portions, infact all p'artsof the fibers, except the almost extreme tail ends, whichare held fast. WVhen the heads are held by the receiving rolls, boththetails and intermediate portions are treated. In other words,twothirds (more or less) of the length of the fibers from one end isprotruding at the first operation, and the same length offiber from theother end at the next operation. I

Fig. 9 shows combs I on opposite sides of the slot 7 in the tube F. Thepoints of the teeth of the comb extend in the direction of the cleansingblast, but at an angle thereto. v I I The herein-described process alsoresults incidentally in imparting a polish to the fibers, this beingefiected by the friction of the fibers upon being drawn apart, and bythe friction of the steam or air current upon the fibers. p

I claim: Y

j 1. The process of removing impurities and the like from fibrousmaterial, which consists in successively dividinga sheet of suchmaterial into sections, and subjecting each succeeding section to theaction of a cleansing blast,wand then re-uniting each section with theprevious one subjected to the cleansing blast to reestablish thecontinuity of the sheet.

2. The process of removing impurities and the like from fibrousmaterial, which consists in dividing a sheet of such material 1ntosectlons, and after each .dlVlSlOIl sub-.

jecting first one "and then the other end; of the successive sectionsthus severedfromthe Gopies of this patent may be obtained for sheet tothe action of a cleansing blast, and after such cleansing operationuniting the tinuity thereof.

The process of removingimpurities sections to the sheet,to reestablishthe conand the like from fibrous material, which consists in subjectingthe forward end of a sheet of such material to the action of acleansingblast, then severing a section from the sheet and subjectingthe rear end of such severed section tothe action of the cleansingblast, then subjecting the severed end of the remaining portion of thesheet to the cleansing blast, and then .uniting the last mentioned endof the sheet to the section which was severed. i

4. The process of. removing impurities and the like from fibrousmaterial, which consists in subjecting the forward end of a sheet ofsuch material to the action of a cleansing blast, then severing asection from the sheet and subjecting the rear end of such severedsection to the action of the I cleansing blast," then subjecting thesevered end of the remaining portion of the sheet to the cleansingblast, and then uniting the last mentioned end of. the sheet to thesection which was severed, then advancingthe sheet and again severing asection therefrom and repeating the herein-described operation, the samebeing continued to the end of the sheet.

5. The process of removing impurities and the like from fibrousmaterial, which consists in dividing a sheet of such material intosections, and subjecting the sections to the action of a cleansing blastand also to p a combing action, and then reuniting the sections I toreestablish the continuity ofthe sheet. j

6. The process of removing impurities and the like from fibrousmaterial, which consists in dividing a sheet of such material intosections, carrying a cleansing blast first to one and then to the otherend of the severed sections to subjectsaid ends to the action of'theblast, and reuniting the sections after such cleansing action toreestablish thev continuity ofv the sheet.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two. witnesses.

' JOHN W. CONNOLLY.

Witnesses LEVI LA' BRADE,

THOMAS BERTENSHAW.

